I have started a blends thread on Twitter as part of my hunt for linguistic blends new and old.

A blend is an amalgamation of two words to create a new one. A classic example that springs to mind is ‘brunch.’ Others include Peter Andre’s seminal (ahem!) album from the 1990s ‘Insania;’ the more recent ‘Freakonomics‘ from Stephen Dubner and Steven Levitt book of the same name (I also heard more recently from the Wall Street Journal ‘Obamanomics’); and the more workaday ‘motel.’

So far I have received several examples including those from @Dan_Jellinek: ‘moobs’ (man + boobs); from @Bigfishysea: ‘spork’ (spoon+fork), my personal bete noir of blends ‘webinar’ (web + seminar) and an original blend, ‘shocks’ – shoes so comfy they feel like socks.

That’s the beauty of language, it’s in constant flux because people have been inventing new words and phrases to suit their needs since time immemorial.

To add to this repository please use the hashtag #blends on Twitter. My ID is @melpoluck.

I would say sniglets are emerging everyday. But whether they catch on is the tricky part. 🙂

But if you look at the changes in the Oxford English Dictionary over the past few years, you will notice that the majority of neologisms added are technology themed. Most of these are computer based.

Words originating from mobile phones are not ‘professionally accepted’. Much like the AAVE issue these words are often classified as slang. I estimate that as the population that uses them most (youth) age, it’s acceptance will grow.